The ancient history of India shows that it has had four great religious eras. First, The Vedic, in which Agni, Indra, and other personifications, invoked with feasts and with the hymns of the Rig Veda, and in which maidens selected their husbands in the Swayamvara, and monarcha sacrificed the horse in the Aswa Medha. Second, The Brahmanic period, when the ICshatriya feasts 'were converted into sacrifices for the atone ment of Bina against the Brahmanical law, and divine worship was reduced to a system of auster ities and meditationg upon the supreme spirit as Brahma. It was in this era, that the Brahmans assumed the character of a great ecclesiastical hierarchy, and established that priestly dominion which still extends over the minds and senses of the Ilindus of India. Thirdly, The Buddhist periewl, in which Sakya appeared. Ahd fourthly, the Brahnianical revival, during which Brahmans abandoned the worship of their god Brahma, and have clothed with new attributes some of the 'old national gods and heroes of the Vedic Aryans. In this era Siva is worshipped by one great por tion of Hiudus supreme, and styled Iswara and Mahadeva, Lord and Great God, while by it larger part Vishnu came to be regarded as the supreme being, and Rama and Krishna as his incarnation& The Buddhist philosophies do not authorize or favour the sacrifice of animals, but DA Carne tells us that a Buddhist of his camp made an offering of one of his fingers at a Buddhist shrine in Annam. Also, Mr. 1Vade remarks, that at the Chinese court, in the middle of the 19th century, some Manchu lend Nfongol, in the five banners, had the prefix taai-aang, which deelaree them to be employed in alaying the victims need in sacrifice. The flesh of victims is offered in the Ilwan-ning-kung, the portion of the palace appropriated to the emprese, every morning at 4 o'clock, and at the tame hour in the afternoon ; at the monthly eacrifice performed on the second of the first moon, and the first day of all succeediug • and at the sacrifice of the morrow, performed on the third of the first, and the aecond of all euceeeding moons. The morning daily SACrifiCC is to Buddha, Kwan-yin, and Kwan-ti (the Mars of China) ; the evening, to nine Tartar divinities bearing loug unintelligible appellations. The monthly sacrifices appear to be the same with that on the inorrow,' i.e. of the monthly aacrifice. The flesh of the victim is boiled and placed before the idols above enumerated, on the right and left of the shrine of heaven ; when removed, it is par taken of by the emperor or empresa, if officiating in person, or by those to whom his majesty nifty direct the nobles, his proxies, to distribute it.
There are two hymns in the Rig Veda describing the rite of the Aiwa NIedlia or sacrifice of the horse, and which leave no doubt that in the early religion of the race this sacrifice was had recourse to as a burnt-offering to the gods. It was even then, however, falling into disuse, and was exist ing as a relic of an ante-Vedic period, imported from some foreign re,gion possibly from Scythia, where animal victims, and especially horeea, were commonly sacrificed. And in still later times, the Aswa Isfedha consisted in certain ceremonies ending in the liberation of the horse, as through out Southern India is atilt practised With S. bull or eow, many of which are met with in every village, freed or let loose in the name of the gode Siva or Vishnu.
In the Mahavira Charita, Vasishtha, addreasing Jamadagni sari, The heifer is ready for sacrifice, and the fetid is cooked lu ghi. Thou art a learned man, come to the hotae of the learned, favour us by waiting and participating in the sacrifice.' Also, the Uttar= Charita says (Cal. Rev. 109, l'• 30)— Why, know ye not Tho Vedas, which enshrine our holy law, Direct the householder shall offer those Who in the law are skilled, tho horned animal, And with it flesh ox, or calf, or goat ; And the like treatment shall the householder Receive from Brahmans learned in the Vedas.' 'The Institutes of Menu 'contain the following paragraph The sacrifice of a bull, of a man, or of a horse, in the kali ageonust be avoided by twice-born men ; so must a second gift of a married young woman, whose husband hatt died before consummation ; the larger portioa of an eldest brother, and procreation on a brother's widow or wife.' The Vaishnara sect have four kinds of sacrifices, Viz. the Vaiswadeva, Varuna -praghasa, Saka medha, Sunasiriya, to be offered up in the months Asharh, Kartik, and Phalguna. The attributes of these are romted cakes of flour, with figures of sheep made of dough to Vaiswadeva and Vtiruntt, with vegetables to Agni and Indra.
Bloody sacrifices form no part of the ordinary 'worship now paid to Rona, Krishna, Hanuman, and other tnodern deities of tho Vaishnava Sec tarians, nor to Vigneswara, Subrahmaniya, etc., of the Saiva sect, or of their respective god deasei.
It ia uauctlly auppotied that all Vaitilinava inana abetain from offering living creatures in sacrifice. But in Southern India, at tho present day, the Vadagliala Vaislinava met offer living creatures in sacrifice, while the Tenagliala Vaish nava and Nfadhava substitute dough for animala. In the eacrifices of Saiva Brahmans tho aictim'a head in never cut by the Sudra pujari, but it is strangled by him, so that the life is lost without spilling blood. Saiva Brahmans eacrifice living creatures in Southern India, and never uae dough iinages as a substitute. Amongst tho Smartha, and ale° Madhava Brahmans, each household keeps a tulsi plant in the middle of the court yard for worshipping. Each new moon, *a also on the occurrence of an eclipse, either of the sun or moon, also at the summer and winter sol stices, their Utrayanam and Datchanayanam, every caste Hindu, whether Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaisya, or Sudra, offers the Tharpanam, or water-sacrifice, in tho names of his deceased father, grandfathers, great-grandfathers, and their wivem, seeds of the oriental sestunum being mixed with the water. It as a means cd continuing this Srad'ha cere mony that Iliridas long to have a son born to them, as in their creed it is taught that the manes of ancestors are gratified by the Tharpariam. This i3 a particular part of the sacrifice, called yugnii, but at present it la often performed separately, The things offered are clarified butter, sesamum flowers, boiled rice, rice boiled in milk and sweetened with honey, durba grass, vilva leaves, and the tender branches, half a span long, of the ushwutthu, the doomvnru, the pulashu, the akun-du, the shumee, and the khudiru trees. Clarified butter alone is sufficient, but any or all of these things may be added.